Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Strange Boys at The Echo (February 26, 2010)
Just because I’m not budgeted to hit any shows this month doesn’t mean that I’m not listening to music all the time. And some of it isn’t even from my childhood. This batch of new (and somewhat new) releases isn’t arranged alphabetically but more like how I’d place them on a mixtape. Start off with some garage-y rock, ease into classic reggae, and then hit the punk and thrash. Yeah, right? Longtime Giant Robot fans will recall that I interviewed Strange Boys and Lee Scratch Perry in the pages of the print magazine, while more current readers will remember the online interview with Classics of Love’s Jesse Michaels from just a few weeks ago. As for RAD, only the hardest core/borderline unhealthy Giant Robot maniacs would realize that the bass player Anthony worked at the GR shops on Sawtelle and played on the softball team back in the day.
You might recall my gushing review after attending preview night at the Chinese American Museum for its current show, Breaking Ground: Chinese American Architects in Los Angeles (1945-1980). I returned to the Downtown L.A. destination when it wasn’t so crowded to talk to co-curator Steven Wong (above) about the show.
MW: Architecture can’t be easy to show in a museum because so much of it is felt when you walk in a building or stand in its shadow.
SW: It’s hard to show architecture in a museum, and to understand architecture as an art form is even harder. But it’s something we interact with on a daily basis. Everyone has a relationship with architecture whether it’s conscious or not. When I was doing research for the show, I realized that Chinese American architects were responsible for many iconic buildings that really molded my experience as an Angeleno growing up.